- Hey guys I'm a doctor, and I'm gonna talk about
some Game of Thrones related stuff.
- Would you shut up?
- Being a doctor, you probably expect for me
to weigh in on the injuries that have happened on the show.
But I'm not gonna do that for two reasons.
Really, there's not much I can say about this.
(people screaming)
That's inherently unhealthy,
and you should probably avoid that.
Two, as much as you may enjoy all the action and violence,
by the way, I do too,
I enjoy my videos staying monetized more,
so that I can continue making them.
So if we're not talking violence,
what else are we gonna talk about?
Let's start off with the Emelia Clarke:
the beloved Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen.
The First of Her Name, the Queen of the Andals
and the First Men.
The Protector of the Seven Kingdoms.
The Mother of Dragons.
The Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea.
The Unburned.
The Breaker of Chains!
Yeah, her.
I got it, right?
- [Male Voice] Yeah.
- That was sick!
If you haven't seen it, she wrote a captivating essay
for the New Yorker last month where she reveals
that after filming the first season of Game of Thrones,
she actually suffered two life threatening aneurysms
and the stroke.
I'd like to read from Emelia's own words
what she felt like when she knew her life was in danger.
"On the morning of February 11, 2011,
"I was getting dressed in the locker room of a gym
"in Crouch End, North London, when I started to feel
"a bad headache coming on.
"I was so fatigued that I could barely put on my sneakers.
"When I started my workout, I had to force myself
"through the first few exercises.
"Then my trainer had me get into the plank position,
"and I immediately felt as though an elastic band
"were squeezing my brain.
"I tried to ignore the pain and push through it,
"but I just couldn't.
"I told my trainer I had to take a break.
"Somehow, almost crawling, I made it to the locker room.
"I reached the toilet, sank to my knees,
"and proceeded to be violently, voluminously ill.
"Meanwhile, the pain: shooting, stabbing,
"constricting pain, was getting worse.
"At some level, I knew what was happening:
my brain was damaged."
What she's describing here, in perfect, perfect vocabulary,
is what's known as a thunderclap headache.
This is a swift, onset headache that's typically labeled
as 'the worst headache of a patient's life.'
And when doctors like me hear it,
we know that's a medical emergency.
In fact, when she got to the hospital,
and they performed a scan, they found that she was
bleeding into the area surrounding her brain,
which is a stroke.
Let's talk strokes for a moment,
and I'm gonna make this super simple.
There are two types,
one is called an ischemic stroke,
where blood flow is blocked off,
and not enough of it is reaching the brain,
therefore it dies.
This is not what our dear Khaleesi had.
She had what's knows as a hemorrhagic stroke,
which is when the brain doesn't get enough blood flow,
because there's a bleed in the brain,
or the area surrounding the brain.
In fact, what she had, was a bleed
in the surrounding areas,
known as the subarachnoid space,
hence giving it the name, subarachnoid bleed,
or subarachnoid hemorrhage.
How is a healthy female that's not involved
in a car accident, having a bleed in the area
surrounding the brain, having the rare type
of a rare form of a stroke?
The reason for that is, they found her
to have an aneurysm, and not just one, but two.
An aneurysm is where you have a weakness
in an arterial wall, which causes that part
to balloon or dilate, which makes it very susceptible
to rupture and have a stroke.
Having a subarachnoid hemorrhage,
as a result of an aneurysm, is a deadly condition.
We've seen mortality rates as high as 40 to 50%.
And from the people that do survive,
there's a high chance of cognitive impairment
that affects quality of life.
Thankfully, after two surgeries and lots of recovery,
Emelia's back to a hundred percent,
and kicking some serious (screeching sound).
- (speaks in foreign language)
(chains rattle)
(loud whooshing sound)
Let's talk about one of my favorite characters,
and possibly one of your favorites:
Tyrion Lannister, played by Peter Dinklage.
Peter's so much more than his stature.
He's a great actor, and his character is truly
a blast to watch.
- I'm not a cripple.
- Then I'm not a dwarf, my father will rejoice to hear it.
- Dwarfism officially is when a person
has a height less than then 4'10",
or 147 centimeters when fully grown.
There's well over 300 medical conditions
that cause dwarfism to happen.
The most common of them, is achondroplasia,
and that's what Peter Dinklage has.
Achondroplasia is a rare, genetic bone disorder
in which the arms and legs are shorter in proportion
to the body, which means that you have
a normal sized torso, a large head
with a pronounced forehead, but short limbs.
The majority of these cases, up to 80%,
actually happen as a result of a new mutation,
which means that the parents were of average height,
and didn't have the abnormal gene.
The most common symptoms, outside of the two
we've already mentioned,
would be scoliosis,
which is an abnormal curvature of the spine,
bowed legs, flat feet that are short and broad,
and missed developmental milestones in children.
Because as you can imagine, with short and curved limbs,
it might be difficult to start walking.
But, it's very important to note that life span,
and intelligence tend to be unaffected.
And in the case of Tyrion, well he's wicked smart.
- My brother has his sword, and I have my mind,
and a mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone.
- The interesting universe that George R. R. Martin created,
also has giants!
(roaring)
While we don't have giants of that caliber in real life,
we do have some humans that have grown to be
absolutely massive.
This is usually the result of a condition
known as gigantism.
Gigantism occurs when you have a high amount
of growth hormone from childhood.
The reason for this increase in growth hormone,
is usually because of a tumor in the pituitary gland,
the gland that releases growth hormone.
The prime example of this would be Andre the Giant
who grew to be 7'4",
and weighed over 500 pounds.
That's massive!
It's important not to confuse the condition
of gigantism with acromegaly.
While both of them happen as a result
of excess growth hormone, acromegaly occurs later in life,
after your growth plates have fused.
So you're not gonna get taller if you develop acromegaly.
Generally what happens, is you have
an increased size of hands, feet, and even facial features.
Going back to Tyrion, let's talk about his dear siblings,
who love him just as much as we do.
- I would do things for my family you couldn't imagine.
- Tyrion is your family.
- He's not!
- You don't get to choose.
- I do, so do you.
- Cersei and Jamie Lannister are siblings.
They also happen to have three children together,
which means that they're doing the no-pants dance.
This is as good a time as any to chat inbreeding.
Wow, I never thought I'd say that.
Let's talk about the biological reasons
of why inbreeding isn't a good idea.
The main concern when it comes to inbreeding,
comes from the incredibly high probability
that the offspring will have a birth defect.
For many genetic disorders, there needs to be a trait
that's given from the mother and the father.
Now, if the mother and the father are related,
there's a much higher probability that they carry
this recessive trait that's needed to be present
in order for the offspring to have the genetic disorder.
If the father has the recessive trait,
and mates with someone who doesn't have the recessive trait,
the child will generally be fine.
The other lesser known negative effect of inbreeding,
is the reduction of genetic diversity.
Ideally, we want as much diversity as possible in our genes,
because that allows us to adapt
to the environment over time.
In fact, a group that has a very low genetic diversity,
is considered to have low biological fitness.
Think about this with dogs.
We know mutts are healthier than purebred dogs,
because they're able to use multiple sets of genes
and pick out the healthiest ones in order to survive.
Examples of some genetic disorders that can be
a result of incest happen to be
blindness, infertility, facial deformities,
congenital heart defects, diabetes, and many more.
It's not a good idea to mate
with your brother and sister.
Are you listening Cersei and Jamie?
- [Cersei] I am the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms,
I'll do as I please.
- My friends, I hope you've enjoyed our journey
into Westeros.
If you want me to make another video
where I talk about the actual
medical circumstances in the show,
drop it down below in the comments.
For now, click on my Adam Ruins Everything review,
'cause I think you're gonna really enjoy it.
I'll pray to the old gods and the new,
that you stay happy and healthy.
(dramatic violin music)